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NEW YORK – A new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural
History will highlight some of the cutting-edge space technology
in hand or under way, from a rover that looks for life on Mars to
an elevator that rises into space from the moon.

The exhibit opening Saturday (Nov. 19), titled "Beyond Planet
Earth: The Future of Space Exploration," gives space and tech
fans an up-close look at what may be on the horizon for exploring
our solar system.

"Some of these technologies are already being studied and
planned, and they are grounded in real scientific possibility,"
museum president Ellen Futter told media members at a preview of
the exhibit earlier this week.

The moon

One of the most
innovative technologies on display is represented by the
model of a lunar elevator. It features a skinny cable that in
real life would rise thousands of miles into space from the
surface of the moon, supporting cable cars that could deliver
cargo to and from a docked spacecraft.

“This might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but
engineers and visionaries have been working on this idea for
nearly a century,” the exhibit inscription reads. “If we do set
up a human base on the moon, we would eventually need a way to
get materials to and from the moon’s surface.”

The main cable would rise from the Moon’s equator more than
28,000 miles and would stay upright in space, ending in a docking
station. It’s not yet known which material would be used
for the cable. The cable cars would be fueled by
solar electricity or lasers and would rise slowly to the
docking station.

Such an elevator would cut the expense of trips to the moon and
would create a permanent way to transport goods from the moon to
low Earth orbit.

The exhibit also provides for the possibility that humans will
return to the moon and stay for good. A base camp would be
necessary to help them eat, sleep, bathe and work. A small
replica of what the private space company Bigelow Aerospace
proposes to send to the moon features an expandable spacecraft
module. Astronauts would leave Earth in a spaceship, dock in
space with the module and bring it down to the moon.

Meanwhile, astronomers propose to one day build a reflecting
telescope, called a liquid mirror telescope, at the moon's south
pole. The exhibit features a model of one that forms a mirror out
of liquid spinning smoothly at a constant speed. It reflects and
focuses light toward a target, forming an image of a starscape.

Exploring Mars

Mars is a cold and dry planet now, but scientist think millions
of tons of liquid water once flowed on its surface. This means
that life could have once thrived on the Red Planet, making it a
high-priority target for future
space exploration.

Toward that end, the new exhibit includes a replica of NASA's
Curiosity rover, a car-size vehicle scheduled to launch next week
and reach Mars next August. Its purpose is to look for life on
the planet and explore the Gale Crater, an area once filled with
water. Curiosity also will pick up samples from the surface for
testing.

Astronauts could learn more about Mars through other innovative
tools, such as a hand-held device that searches for underground
objects by sending signals into rocks. It can detect metal or
nonmetallic materials and report how far underground they are.

Astronauts also will be using an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer
that beams X-rays into rocks to identify up to 30 different
elements at once.

Museum interactivity

The "Beyond Planet Earth" exhibit is enhanced by many high-tech
elements, including an augmented-reality app that
projects 3-D images of rotating asteroids, moon habitats and
spacecraft to help users visualize and learn more about the space
technology. [Top
7 Space Apps]

"We wanted to use different interactive technologies to bring
learning and innovation to a deeper level for attendees," Helene
Alonso, director of Exhibit Interactives and Media, told
TechNewsDaily. "Incorporating interactive elements is becoming an
increasingly important part of new exhibitions, and everything we
do is built in-house."

The exhibit also features a console that gives visitors the
feeling of flying around Mars and zooming in on its surface
features, as well as a Mars terraforming game that runs on a
multi-touch table.